Alfalfa's Market took a significant step Thursday night toward locating a store in Louisville, when the city's Planning Commission gave a thumbs-up to a mixed-use project -- which would include the natural grocer as its anchor -- on the site of an abandoned Safeway store.

The commission voted unanimously to give its recommendation to the City Council to approve the project at the corner of South Boulder Road and Centennial Drive. The council is expected to take up the issue Nov. 20.

"It's a tremendous step forward," Commissioner Scott Russell said of the project, which would feature a 22,000-square-foot Alfalfa's and 111 high-end apartment units, in addition to 8,000 square feet of retail space.

All of the commissioners said the project, pitched by Boulder developer Jim Loftus, was far superior to what he had initially proposed for the 5-acre site. Earlier this year, Loftus told the city he wanted to build a 195-unit luxury apartment complex with 10,000 square feet of accompanying retail space.

His proposal, though reduced in size a couple of times during the approval process, invited harsh opposition from neighbors and other residents who felt the development was too dense, too massive and would cause too many traffic problems. The city rejected Loftus' plan in June.

Loftus regrouped and came to the city again in the summer, this time teamed up with Alfalfa's. His new plan placed emphasis on commercial space over residential and brought to the table a retailer that many residents had expressed a desire to have in the city.

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Members of the Planning Commission expressed excitement Thursday at the idea of finally seeing the rejuvenation of a shopping center that has begun to spiral into disuse and neglect. Taxable sales in the overall South Boulder Road corridor have plummeted since Safeway closed in 2010, falling from $7.5 million in the first three quarters of 2006 to $2.5 million for the same span in 2011.

An Alfalfa's would generate $3 million in sales tax revenues for Louisville over a decade and employ 100 full-time and part-time employees, the city estimates. Last week, the City Council approved a generous business assistance package to the grocer if it locates in Louisville, offering a rebate of three years' worth of sales tax revenues, among other incentives.

"I think the scale and massiveness has improved," Chairman Jeff Lipton said of the new plan from Loftus. "I think this is a creative way to balance a number of interests."

But the majority of residents who spoke out at the meeting Thursday still weren't satisfied with what had been put on the table.

A rendering of the proposal for the former Safeway site in Louisville.

Valerie Hackman, who lives near the Safeway site, said the residential portion of the development should be two stories instead of three.

"I'm against the density, and I'm against the height -- it's still too high for this area," she said. "If this is the future of redevelopment in Louisville, Louisville will not be recognized in the future."

Resident Sid Vinall said Loftus' plan should envision some way of re-using the old 54,000-square-foot Safeway building.

"It would have been great if Alfalfa's could have just moved into the old Safeway building," he said.

The project should also, Vinall said, incorporate retail on the ground floor of the residential buildings planned for the site.

But several commissioners praised Loftus for being willing in the last few weeks to reduce the sheer mass of the residential building at the north end of the site, by breaking it up from one structure into three. Traffic would also be less problematic with the new plan than it had been with a fully operating Safeway, dropping from 5,600 vehicle trips per day to 3,990 trips daily, according to estimates from a traffic engineer hired by Loftus.

"I think this development is the kind of development we'll be shooting for under the new comprehensive plan," Commissioner Jeff Moline said.

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